


ghost that relieves all my fears

by seventhstar



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 07:37:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3759970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhstar/pseuds/seventhstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>yuuma watches astral’s favorite show. but it’s hard to watch alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ghost that relieves all my fears

Esper Robin is playing in the background, an episode Yuuma must have seen twenty times because this show reruns every night, for an hour, and Astral has the times memorized. it does not matter how many times Astral watches anything; his eyes are so sharp, his memory so perfect, that he always finds something new. He always has some new analysis. Yuuma does not think so deeply about Esper Robin; in fact, he is always telling Astral to be quiet and let him sleep, please, it’s just a tv show, he has school in the morning.

But if Astral comes back, Yuuma promises to God and the stars and anyone who will listen, he will let Astral watch every night, forever. He’ll sit quietly and listen to all Astral’s thought, and treasure them like they were made of gold, like they were cards in his deck, like they were oxygen in the air. If Astral will only return. If his Key will fall back around his neck, and glow, and release Astral’s blue and smiling self so he can say ‘observation number eight thousand and one’ and continue to always be at Yuuma’s side.

His friend, his partner is gone. Yuuma couldn’t protect him.

Onscreen, Esper Robin has saved the day once more, his stolen friend in the crook of his arm. it doesn’t matter that none of it’s real, that Esper Robin is really shy Fuuya; Yuuma’s eyes still fill with tears and he draws the blanket around is shoulders. The cold in his heart does not go, though. The cold in his heart remains as it is, because Yuuma’s heart is little emptier when Astral is not there. Astral’s voice fills the silence, his strength straightens Yuuma’s back, his smile gives Yuuma reasons when Yuuma does not have them.

He feels the weight of the Numbers heavily – why did Astral have to ask him for a promise like that? Yuuma will give up everything, to have him back – and watches the credits roll.

'I want to leave a proof that I existed in your heart.’

If this hole is Astral’s proof, if this pain is Astral’s existence, Yuuma wants no part of it. He just wants Astral to come home. Without him, Yuuma’s heart is heavy with grief, and it feels impossible to go on with this burden.

“On today’s episode of Esper Robin…” Yuuma does not hear the rest of the announcer’s cheerful introduction. The sound of his own sobs drown everything out.


End file.
